How many foster children can you be registered for?

We have two double bedrooms spare in our home which we use for fostering. We had a long term placement of siblings until last week (a boy and a girl) but social services separated them for their own good and now we only have the one child with us long term.

We expected to be offered another foster child so dh and I are understandably not happy to be told that there will not be another child placed alongside our foster child. Also, we were told that our registration is changing at next panel in the summer from two children to one child aged 0-18 years.

Our foster child in placement with us is well settled. It all seems a bit strange and we can get no explanation for why we will not have another child placed with us.

Is it usual to re-register foster carers from two children to one child at panel. We are not sure what is going on really. Any help appreciated.

That sounds really odd to me - especially when we're constantly told of the desperate shortage of foster carers. I've heard lots of tales of carers being asked to take more children than they're approved for (myself included) but never less.

Depends on what criteria SS are using . Sibling group of 5 we had counted as One placement. had another two also , all long term , we Adopted them all in the event , still continuing fostering , all are now adults, some are foster parents themselfs, also our birth daughter. Always being asked too take morebut have too stand your ground , it has too fit around the family and not effect the quality of your life.

I am very curious about this. Is it that the remaining child has to be a solo placement? In which case you should be looking for what, I think, is now called 'an enhanced payment' as I guess technically you are losing earnings. It could be that your bosses (LA or independant?) are being clever and saving money. One of our placements was incredibly challenging and when it became obvious that we couldn't have other kids in the house, we got paid an extra fee. You will have to challenge this before it gets to panel, get all the facts and make sure everyone knows you are not happy.